


Bilbo Baggins' Observations Regarding Dwarves

by bmouse



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Bilbo the Nerdy Scholar, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 09:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmouse/pseuds/bmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though he'd studied Elves before, during 'the Adventure' Bilbo Baggins finds himself in the middle of a new and fascinating academic opportunity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bilbo Baggins' Observations Regarding Dwarves

Bilbo Baggins had dedicated no small part of his life to academic pursuits. Another significant portion of time was likewise spent hiding this from his neighbors. It was one thing to keep a neat inventory of one's household and every hobbit of a certain age had some flirtations with genealogy (mainly writing down any old gossip people could remember about one's grandmother, great uncle and so forth) but having somewhat expanded his childhood picture book "Elves!" to a 13 tome collection that included "Fey and Strange Races of Middle Earth, Volume III" would surely have him branded as 'eccentric.'

 

Admittedly his studies of the other Races had been mostly on the Elvish bent, perhaps because seeing the  Big Folk in Bree one could hardly imagine interesting Men, while Dwarves... Actually he wasn't sure why not Dwarves. Maybe the way they were closer in size only made the other differences more apparent. Perhaps considering the solitary smiths and tinkerers that passed through the shire, one couldn't forget their scarred, swarthy faces. How even while mending wagons or frying pans they bristled with daggers and mail and while many a young hobbit dreamed of treasure not many wanted to think about the price of keeping it.

 

So after his mind and body had adjusted to being travel-sore and hungry and occasionally hunted by fanged creatures of varying hygiene with a certain dogged Tookishness his thoughts turned once again to observing and cataloging and he had to conclude that here was a priceless chance to study a scholastically underrepresented and very mysterious people. 

 

Yes, if there was anything this adventure had succeeded in teaching him so far, it was that the best kind of knowledge was the kind in which you were the primary source and got to write it down yourself, author and expert alike. Lately he could, with some certainty, draft out a volume on "The Art of Dwarf Beard Braiding (with an Appendix as to General Significance)" and of course hardly a day passed without opportunity to observe Fili and Kili's antics in contrast to their uncle and add another annotation to his pet project; "Baggins' Theories on Transitive versus Hereditary Surliness in the Line of Durin."

But there were other things.

Nowhere, for example, was it written that dwarves, even dwarven kings, under their thick hair had curiously rounded ears, large but delicately veined and translucent in the sunlight like the ears of a fat dormouse he'd once found nibbling on his notes. For the rest of that week, even as it turned overcast and cold, he would look at Thorin's nobly furrowed forehead, bookended by those sweetly wind-redened ears and smile helplessly - secure in a precious, private joy and knowing he would never write a word about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Dwarf ears are adorable...


End file.
